Not sure how many have an account to the Standard Issue site but I just tried to renew mine - tried being the keyword. My account expired so I thought no big deal send in the same ID as last time and should be back in business within a day. Well sometime in the last year their policy changed where now they have limited the program to the front line/ pointy end of the spear, those were the reps words. (I guess the program used to be open to anyone in the govt, seemed odd but I wasn't going to question their openness.)
The reps statement was also is in line with the second line in the Denial email:
- Does not qualify as Ballistic or Tactical use.
The rep asked a few verification questions (what do you do, etc..) and went on to explain that things got more strict when Oakley proper bought them recently, so they were no longer a standalone business. Don't know much about that but the rest makes sense to me, in my opinion, they have limited the program to serve the group it was always intended to help. No problem here with that move.
As a caveat, it did sound like if you are govt and became forward deployed for periods of time then you would still be eligible.